1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to conveyor belts, and in particular, to a link member having a replaceable wear component.
2. Description of Related Art
Conveyor belt systems are commonly used in various industrial fields for material handling and processing purposes. For instance, conveyor systems are used within food processing systems in which food items are placed on the support surface of a conveyor belt and processed, while being conveyed from one location to another. Various types of conveyor belts exist, including modular conveyor belts, which are especially popular in food processing systems. Moreover, conveyor systems are often used in a helical accumulator such as that disclose in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,999 to Layne et al. which allows storage of a large number of items in the conveyor system.
Conveyor belts used in spiral ovens are driven by a spiral cage made with evenly spaced vertical bars or a smooth cage surface. Due to the high temperatures required in an oven, the cage surface that would normally be covered with plastic in ambient or freezing applications must instead be made with stainless steel. A typical conveyor belt used in food processing equipment would also be made of stainless steel.
Spiral theory requires that the spiral cage in these applications be driven slightly faster than the belt edge. This difference in speed results in adhesive wear between the inside belt edge and the rotating cage surface. Conveyor belts used in these applications are made with links and rods. The rods terminate at either end with either a weld to the link or a button head welded to the link. A continuous series of these elements are assembled to create an endless conveyor belt.
The wear that occurs between the rotating cage surface and the inside belt edge results in the reduction of thickness of the button head. If this wear goes unabated, the button head and weld thin to the point that the weld between the link and rod fails, leading to operation failure of the entire belt. This results in both product loss and machine down time. If wear of the inside button heads is noticed upon inspection, users, as required, will “repair” the belts by adding additional weld material to the button head in order to extend the belt life. This “repair” process is timely, costly and inconsistent.